Outspoken.College is supposed to be a time of learning, growing, and, not to mention, fun. Most people think of college as a time to get out and experience the world. They don't expect to find themselves confined con·fine v. con·fined, con·fin·ing, con·fines v.tr. 1. To keep within bounds; restrict: Please confine your remarks to the issues at hand. See Synonyms at limit. to a cold and unfamiliar dorm room, afraid to leave. That's how I found myself midway through my second semester se·mes·ter n. One of two divisions of 15 to 18 weeks each of an academic year. [German, from Latin (cursus) s at Hampden-Sydney College Overview Hampden-Sydney enrolls over 1,100 students from thirty states and several foreign countries. The College enrolls young men of character and ability who will benefit from a rigorous and traditional liberal arts curriculum. in Virginia, which was ranked by The Princeton Review this year as the least gay-friendly college in the nation. I'm gay, and that wasn't something I could change or was prepared to hide. I was out, and that was a problem for my fellow students at the all-male school. The harassment Ask a Lawyer Question Country: United States of America State: Nevada I recently moved to nev.from abut have been going back to ca. every 2 to 3 weeks for med. began as simple name-calling but quickly escalated. I was the subject of Web postings, newspaper articles, and other forms of humiliation. My dorm room was graffitied, and when I moved into a fraternity house my furniture was covered with words like fag. I always knew I could leave and go to another school where I could lose myself in a crowd and be rid of the intolerance intolerance /in·tol·er·ance/ (in-tol´er-ans) inability to withstand or consume; inability to absorb or metabolize nutrients. congenital lysine intolerance , But that wasn't the right thing to do. so I'm still here. I chose Hampden-Sydney as the school where I'd take my bachelor's degree because it reminded me of my high school. It has a relatively small student body and a low student-faculty ratio. I was used to being in a friendly atmosphere steeped in tradition. There's a custom the student body shares at Hampden-Sydney of saying hello or nodding to every passerby on the sidewalk A Microsoft service that was launched in 1997 to provide online arts and entertainment guides on the Web for major cities worldwide. In 1999, Microsoft sold Sidewalk to Ticketmaster, which continued to provide guides, ticketing and other information to the MSN network. . 'The Hill," as campus is called, was inviting and had high standards. Despite suffering harassment, I realized that my opinion of Hampden-Sydney at the end of my freshman year hadn't changed. What I was experiencing was the result of one group of intolerant in·tol·er·ant adj. Not tolerant, especially: a. Unwilling to tolerate differences in opinions, practices, or beliefs, especially religious beliefs. b. students. Though at times I felt alone and unprotected, the college administration eventually expelled them. Hampden-Sydney has proved to me that The Princeton Review's ranking doesn't necessarily mean a gay student cant thrive here. It just means that it requires a little more persistence and tolerance on the part of that gay student. --Van Vlymen is 19 and lives in Virginia. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion